Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Scalp-A-Sin

One industry I'm rooting against in "these troubled times" is the ticket agencies. I'm wondering if this really could be the end of them. Here's how I see their Armageddon going down:

Right now, people buy tickets, and sell them through the agencies. Agencies keep their cut, and charge huge fees. They make out even if people are buying tickets for less than face value, because of the money they get out of it. Basically, the way it works is: People are buying tickets strictly so they can sell them, meaning in a popular market, those people make a huge score, but in a non-popular one they don't--however, the agency wins either way. But the less popular all the markets become, the less people will buy from the team in order to sell through the agency. And the less people do that, the better the chance the real fan can get tickets through the team at face value. And while Oklahoma City Thunder fans are fine with buying a 25-dollar seat for three dollars from an agency, I think we'd all be better off if they'd just die and all seats were available for face value, which, by the way, would drop as demand drops.

We'll see how it goes with Fenway this year. You can't judge it by initial ticket sales, because the people buying are the agencies and the people who buy strictly to sell to agencies. If nobody pays the big bucks for those seats from the agencies, people will have to drop their prices, and eventually will stop buying (knowing they can't make a profit), and the pool of people buying tickets will shrink, meaning a much easier chance at getting face value from the team, and therefore, poof, no more agencies. People will be at the games, I'm sure. The agency sellers can always drop their prices as games approach. It's not that people can't afford to go to Sox games, it's that they can't afford to pay the prices that agencies and greedy fans are charging.

Hey, in this Lowrie/Lugo thing, can't we just split the difference? Nomah! Okay, maybe not, but if he does retire, I hope he comes and works for the Sox in some way. Even if it's "west coast project advisor" or something.

Remember how Duchovny was at the bookstore during our New Haven signing? The guy that interviewed for Hartford Examiner got a pic. Check it out here, and stay tuned to his site for that interview.